“Whoosh…”
The Immortal Tear Green Gold Ruler turned into a beam of jade-green light, shattering dozens of divine mountains, striking deep into the Divine Domain, charging straight toward an ancient palace, intent on thoroughly looting its magnificent halls.
The Saint Spirit, the Bull Demon King, the Grey Flood Dragon, the Golden Toad, and others followed suit, attacking the Divine Domain, disrupting its order, hoping to fracture this place so as to seize the Tree of Life and other treasures.
Not only the Great Sages from beyond the domain, but even some powerful rogue cultivators from the other shore, along with the elite figures of various clans, could no longer restrain themselves — after so many years of the Divine Domain ruling the other shore unopposed, it had finally fallen into dire straits, and they took the opportunity to loot whatever scriptures and divine artifacts they could seize.
The world turned upside down — almost in an instant, the Divine Domain ran with rivers of blood, as countless top-tier figures charged forward to kill, routing the Divine Army, inflicting devastating casualties.
After all, having just experienced a great calamity, with both the former and current gods dead, the transition between old and new gods had ended in tragedy, and now the Divine Domain was leaderless, its people uneasy, thrown into great upheaval — this was precisely the best time to invade. Such an opportunity would not come again!
“AHHH…” Screams rose one after another, terrifying to hear, battle cries everywhere, corpses falling from the sky in all directions.
The Golden Serpent Lord, the Earth Corpse, the Heaven-Devouring Beast, Sanggu, and others, upon seeing this, all revealed strange expressions — originally they had only intended to strike from the outside, seizing a few important figures to interrogate and learn the Divine Domain’s secrets.
They had not expected things to escalate to this point — it could be said to be a heaven-sent opportunity, and even their last trace of fear toward the array chart left by the Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerate vanished.
Because everyone had now seen clearly — this divine chart was almost uncontrollable; with the old god dead and the new god destroyed, no one else held absolute control over it, and it could only act and attack on its own.
This divine chart was terrifying, but it had not killed indiscriminately in all directions — it guarded the Tree of Life, and had not unleashed excessive divine punishment, not slaughtering these armies wholesale.
“BOOM!”
Within the Divine Domain, four great halls in succession turned to ash, breached by Great Sages from beyond the domain, who razed those four sacred mountains to the ground, seizing all the stored scriptures.
At this time, the Divine Domain’s Sacred Maiden also barely escaped death, pursued by Sanggu, the Great Demon God, Diedian, and the Divine Clan Celestial Maiden, her body drenched in blood, fleeing in defeat all the way.
Several Hall Masters were locked in fierce battle against the Bull Demon King, the Saint Spirit, and others, facing unimaginable pressure — this was a catastrophe for the Divine Domain.
Several Divine Elders were enraged, one of them glaring so hard his eyes seemed about to split, letting out a sharp cry, a divine drum flying from between his brows. He gripped drumsticks and struck with force.
Boom, boom, boom……
A world-shaking demonic sound resonated — many people’s skulls cracked open, their whole bodies covered in blood, dying instantly.
Especially the rogue cultivators from the other shore, who already held deep reverence for the Divine Domain itself — upon seeing the Divine Elder unleash his power, they all retreated like a receding tide, not daring to press the attack further.
“Hold steady — our Divine Domain has endured countless calamities, weathered numerous great disasters, and never once declined. These are nothing but a few devils from beyond the domain — what do they amount to!” a Divine Elder roared.
Several other Divine Elders leapt tremendously, covering tens of thousands of zhang in a single bound, arriving at that most sacred and ancient low mountain. They cut open their own chests, letting their heart’s blood flow freely, dripping onto the mountain’s body — a mountain that appeared unremarkable in height, yet held a status equal to Buddhism’s Mount Sumeru.
“BOOM!”
Sacred faith-power surged mightily, as though striking the ocean against the heavens, intending to sweep down the stars from beyond the domain, surging torrentially into the cosmos, terrifyingly powerful.
“The God is dead. We shall act in the God’s stead — we beseech the Sacred Mountain to grant us the power of the gods, to protect the Divine Domain and drive out the devils!”
These Divine Elders roared together, their voices deafening, shaking the entire Divine Domain. At the same time, this low yet magnificently powerful ancient mountain blazed even brighter, engulfing them, their entire bodies growing dazzling, as if several true gods had descended into the world.
The Nine-Layered Ancient Coffin of the Mythic Age had retreated, and here, faith-power once again became an unrivaled killing weapon — they were enveloped in divine light, gaining a vast and formidable power.
“The Divine Domain’s Ancient Array revives!”
The Divine Elders roared loudly, heaven and earth shaking violently, all directions trembling. Amid the rumbling, mountain after mountain shook, and on every single peak an ancient rune appeared, branding itself upon the firmament.
This was the great array of the Divine Domain, one that only a god could activate — at this moment, several Divine Elders, using the secret methods left by their ancestors, acted in the God’s stead, seizing control and reviving the ancient array.
In an instant, this place suddenly felt entirely different — the various heroes were all forced to retreat, sensing an overwhelming pressure, their minds and spirits nearly shattering.
The three Golden Serpent Lords, Sanggu, the Gold-Devouring Beast, the Earth Corpse, and others, all sharp of perception, immediately retreated. As for the Great Sages, even their eyelashes felt hollow — sensing the vastness of this disturbance, they too frowned and temporarily withdrew.
“Supreme divine artifact, please suppress our enemies.”
The Divine Elders called out together, their bodies glowing, exerting all their strength to activate the Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerate’s array chart — this was an enormous investment of power, acting in the God’s place, taking control of the supreme artifact.
“Not good!”
Some of the more defiant rogue cultivators among the other shore’s natives were a step too slow, caught by the array chart’s divine light, instantly turned to calamity-ash.
BOOM!
This was a massacre — no one had expected the Divine Elders to gain control of the supreme artifact so quickly, giving them no chance at all — even the Great Sages from beyond the domain suffered bitter consequences.
Because the Divine Domain’s Hall Masters and Divine Elders were all watching them closely — these individuals possessed enormous destructive power and were regarded by the Divine Domain as the greatest threat. At this moment, they activated the divine chart, chasing them down and slaughtering them.
“We got carried away — even with the God dead, there’s still the killing array chart, which of course would naturally be controlled by the Divine Domain’s people.” Everyone felt a measure of regret.
“PUFF!”
The Stone Man let out a muffled grunt, one arm exploding — though he had not been struck directly by the divine chart, a wave of its aftershock still reached him, inflicting a heavy blow.
He had just attacked fiercely with the Measuring Heaven Ruler, drawing the Sacred Domain’s hatred, and so had been the focus of their attention from the very start, targeted from the beginning, leaving him in a near-fatal state.
The Bull Demon King let out a great roar, the lower half of his body shattering inch by inch, turning into wisps of blood mist. He struck the void forcefully, casting off an arm as a decoy, fleeing into an unknown void passage.
No one had expected the Divine Domain’s counterattack to be so swift — just moments ago it had seemed on the verge of collapse, and now, after suffering such a blow, it had somehow steadied itself once more.
This left people astonished — the contrast before and after was truly shocking; everything had been turned on its head.
The Great Sages were furious. Facing the Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerate’s array chart, they were all forced into retreat — that killing intent seemed to pierce through past, present, and future, utterly unresistable.
Screams rose one after another. The Saint Spirit and the Bull Demon King paid a heavy price to escape, becoming a symbol of the dam breaking — the various forces fled for their lives in all directions, routed and scattered.
This left people stunned — the reversal, before and after, was truly astonishing; everything had been turned completely upside down.
The Divine Domain was enveloped by a great array, mist swirling, gods roaring and demons howling, fierce winds raging, sand and stones flying — an extremely terrifying scene, and no one could break through any longer.
In truth, the Divine Domain had counterattacked, activating the array chart, unleashing boundless killing intent, like a great calamity of heaven and earth, slaughtering those outside the Divine Domain until corpses lay strewn across the ground and blood flowed like rivers.
In the end, one native rogue cultivator Great Sage who had joined the chaos was killed, and one foreign Great Sage from among the visitors was also eliminated, leaving everyone even more shocked and terrified.
These Divine Elders and Hall Masters showed no mercy in their attacks, slaughtering mercilessly, turning this place into a slaughterhouse of carnage, flesh and blood turned to mud, shattered bones piled high — utterly terrifying.
The Divine Domain had suffered a great calamity this day — both the old and new gods had perished, and even these people had nearly had their faith-power ignited, almost reduced to dust themselves. It could be said they had experienced a great fall, their hearts filled with desolation, in the worst state imaginable. Now that they held the upper hand, they naturally struck with absolute lethality, killing until the wind howled with sorrow and ghosts wept and gods mourned.
This day was destined to be recorded in history — outside the Divine Domain, corpses piled up like mountains, blood flowed enough to float war-clubs, and no one knew how many had died; for dozens of days afterward, the mist of blood lingered, unable to disperse.
Moreover, the Divine Domain launched a frenzied campaign of retaliation, uprooting many of the other-shore clans that had joined the chaos and invaded the Divine Domain, killing until the whole world fell silent.
“In this battle, so many died…” Ye Fan sighed softly. He, along with Pang Bo, Long Ma, and the others, had not joined the fighting, had not invaded the Divine Domain, yet had witnessed all of this with their own eyes.
Outside the Divine Domain, the ground was a sea of mud — all of it made of blood, the mist tinged crimson, the blood having vaporized and now permeating the air.
As for the broken mountains and the great ravines, they were splattered with countless fragments of shattered bone, spots of crimson everywhere — a truly heart-wrenching sight!
No one had expected it would turn out like this — even the battle for the transition between the old and new gods had never been this brutal. The various heroes’ assault on the Divine Domain had resulted in such a catastrophe.
Over the following months, Great Sages continued to occasionally storm the gates, attacking the Divine Domain — naturally the Bull Demon King, the Saint Spirit, the Golden Toad, the strongest of the Ancient Clan, the Human Clan’s Dao Guardians, and others, all from beyond the domain.
Of course, they did not attack in their true bodies, only through other means — otherwise, no one could face the Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerate’s killing array chart.
Unfortunately, all of them failed — some avatars were killed, and the various Great Sage formations they deployed were each declared shattered. One person’s true body was even killed, suffering a crushing defeat.
“To breach the Divine Domain, one would need an Emperor Artifact — otherwise, it is absolutely impossible.” People came to recognize this reality — even with the God dead, this place remained supremely powerful, difficult for outsiders to conquer, with countless experts within the Divine Domain, utterly terrifying.
Furthermore, that ancient mountain — though not comparable to Mount Sumeru, yet holding a similar status within the Divine Domain — likewise left the Great Sages fearful, having accumulated too much faith-power; should it ever surge forth, it would slay gods and destroy Buddhas alike!
The Great Sages tried every method, gathering ancient texts from the various clans of the other shore, searching for weaknesses.
Finally, someone within the Divine Domain leaked a secret. After months of poring over ancient records, the Divine Elders and Hall Masters finally understood — the Divine Domain was a place under a curse.
To be precise, a Supreme had once marked out this land as a prison, carving array patterns here long ago, forever changing its nature.
A deity drawing upon faith-power was, in effect, being placed under shackles — one day, this might become a fatal flaw. An Emperor’s corpse-qi and the like could ignite that faith-power, causing the Divine Domain to collapse and crumble in an instant.
Everyone within the Divine Domain felt a chill of fear, finally understanding why the old god, after learning that the Nine-Layered Coffin of the Mythic Age had fallen upon the other shore, had never dared to go investigate it. They also finally understood the reason he had nearly destroyed the Divine Domain using that ancient coffin.
“Our Divine Domain’s faith-power is unmatched in the world, developing nearly to its utmost limit — some ancient Supreme grew fearful of this, and marked out this prison to constrain us.”
It was not a flaw in the faith-power itself — rather, the Divine Domain itself was “afflicted.”
The descendants of the Divine Domain’s lineage carried this curse branded within them — thus, so long as they drew upon faith-power, it was equivalent to wearing shackles. As long as they never encountered an Emperor’s corpse, it would be fine, but should such corpse-qi ever invade, this place would inevitably become a slaughterhouse.
This was the method by which the ancient Supreme had constrained the Divine Domain.
Ye Fan too heard this secret, and understanding dawned in his heart. These past days, he had been pondering — if the flaws of faith-power were this severe, why would Amitabha Buddha still establish a religion and gather faith? Every ancient domain had his lineage, and boundless faith crossed the void, flowing toward Mount Sumeru.
So it turned out that faith-power itself was not inherently fatal — the real issue was that the Divine Domain had been cursed, marked as a prison by an ancient Supreme, which was why such a great calamity had occurred there.
Ye Fan murmured to himself, saying: “So that’s why I thought the faith-power within my cauldron couldn’t be used anymore. I see now. But this kind of thing is, after all, an external force — it can’t be relied upon, and shouldn’t be refined into the body. Otherwise, how could both the old and new gods have died? In the end, this power cannot be trusted.”
The Divine Domain took the initiative, searching the entire world for the devil from beyond the domain — anyone discovered was to be executed without exception. This plunged all the Great Sages and young Supremes into crisis.
Finally, several Great Sages joined forces, arriving outside the forbidden ground that produced the Divine Demon Liquid, intending to work together to break in and truly carry out the Void Emperor’s ancient coffin, bringing it into the Divine Domain to destroy it entirely!
The situation had grown dire, a fight to the death — the Great Sages from beyond the domain had been pushed to this point, forced to take this desperate gamble. If successful, the Divine Domain would be shattered, and the Tree of Life would change hands.
The Golden Serpent Lord, Sanggu, the Heaven-Devouring Beast, the Earth Corpse, the Great Demon God, Diedian, and others had all come as well, watching the Great Sages cast their techniques.
The Saint Spirit struck once, piercing through a mountain peak, yet it did not shatter — the mountain’s body merely split open, and from within surged a river of blood, torrential and unending, covering the sky.
This left everyone gasping in cold breath — were these mountains made of flesh? Though they had long heard that this was the burial ground of divine demons, seeing it with their own eyes now, they still could not help but be astonished.
“I don’t believe in this evil!” The Saint Spirit, having felt deeply stifled since arriving in this world — first suppressed by the old god for twenty years, not daring to show himself, and then, while attacking the Divine Domain, nearly suppressed and killed — was in an extremely foul mood.
It let out a roar to the heavens, the Immortal Tear Green Gold Ruler flying out from the crown of its head, plunging into the divine-demon mountain range ahead, striking with tremendous force. Accompanied by boundless jade-green light, that place shook violently, countless mountain peaks splitting open, blood spraying high, as if striking into a crimson ocean.
And at this very moment, tens of thousands of mountain peaks trembled, each one raising an ancient symbol, like the Wheel of Reincarnation, crushing down upon all living things, pressing down toward it.
“PUFF!”
The Saint Spirit spat a mouthful of blood, sent flying backward — its forceful assault had cost it dearly, and even its Immortal Tear Green Gold Ruler nearly snapped.
Ahead, across those tens of thousands of mountain peaks, tens of thousands of ancient symbols appeared, each one different, each representing a supreme aspect of the Great Dao.
Everyone gasped in cold breath — this was the legacy of the Ancient Divine Demons, the embodiment of their Great Dao. Attacking this place was like contending against their very lineage and profound teachings.
The Divine Clan Celestial Maiden Xin Lan stood in the distance, her whole body glowing, her jade-like form crystalline, witnessing this scene. She trembled, murmuring excitedly to herself: “This is the legacy of the gods. If my Divine Clan were to enter and comprehend these tens of thousands of ancient symbols, a Divine Sovereign Ruler would surely be born!”
“The legacy of the Ancient Divine Demons — this is my Dao. If I could comprehend the Dao within, sooner or later I would become unrivaled under heaven!” Sanggu, descendant of the Ancient Divine Demons, was likewise shaken.
Aside from them, the Earth Corpse also trembled — so many remains transformed into mountain peaks, this was, to him, the perfect sacred ground for cultivating the Corpse-Demon Dao.
The Heaven-Devouring Beast’s eyes also blazed with intense light — if it could devour the remains of these Ancient Divine Demons, then perhaps it truly could one day devour the heavens themselves!
Ye Fan, Pang Bo, and Long Ma were also watching in secret, for they understood deeply that with so many Great Sages joining forces, rivaling even the old god, this place might truly be broken open — and perhaps Ji Ziyue and Ji Haoyue would soon appear.